Advocacy and Policy Update

U.S. Congress   

The College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA), H.R. 6951, was advanced by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce at the end of January. The bill was introduced by Republican committee chair Representative Virginia Foxx. The bill contains three pillars: (1) Accountability and Student Success; (2) Transparency; and (3) Access and Affordability. The bill summary contains accreditation provisions under the Accountability and Student Success pillar.  

The Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (C-RAC), of which HLC is a member, has previously met with the House committee staff about the legislation and sent a  letter  to Representative Foxx in general support of the bill. However, in its letter, C-RAC raised some concerns related to provisions for accreditor board composition and setting student achievement standards.  

The bill would next be taken up by the full House if it were to move forward.  

U.S. Department of Education 

The latest round of negotiations regarding federal regulations, also known as negotiated rulemaking or, informally, “neg reg,” concluded at the beginning of March. Consensus was only reached on one of the six issues being negotiated. The six issues before the negotiators on the Program Integrity and Institutional Quality Committee were accreditation, cash management, distance education, return of Title IV funds, state authorization, and the TRIO programs. The negotiators only arrived at consensus on regulatory changes for TRIO programs. 

Select accreditation items before the negotiators included changing the way accreditor boards are composed; adding new requirements for complaints handling and processing; requiring more teach out plans and additional location visits; requiring more standards related to student achievement; and changing eligibility and process requirements for institutions attempting to change accreditors. HLC closely monitored negotiations and, as part of C-RAC, responded to each successive round of proposed regulatory changes.  

Institutional accreditors were represented by Jamienne Studley, president of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College & University Commission as lead negotiator and Michale McComis, executive director and CEO of the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges as alternate negotiator. In addition, HLC Board of Trustees chair, Jo Alice Blondin, president of Clark State College in Ohio, served as the lead negotiator for community colleges.  

Negotiated rulemaking is a required process conducted by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) for Title IV programs under the Higher Education Act. To change the federal regulations that USDE promulgates for affected entities – like accreditors – the USDE must announce its intention to start negotiations and the issues to be addressed, seat the interested parties, and conduct facilitated negotiations. The negotiations will either end with or without consensus. The USDE will then publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) with the regulatory changes for public comment. The proposed regulations will also be reviewed by the White House Office of Management and Budget for financial and other regulatory implications. Once the USDE reviews the NPRM comments, it will publish the final regulations in the Federal Register by November 1 of any given year, which will generally then become effective July 1 of the next year. See USDE’s FAQs on the process for more information.  

HLC participates during these regulatory revision processes to advocate for accreditation as well as educate and inform USDE and other negotiators of how Title IV works for accreditors, member institutions, and students.